Any studies or citation or is this your personal experience extrapolated? I have seen many bad/uncaring poor parents without any addiction(unless you can call drinking tea addiction). Good parents in poverty is a blessing though and definitely a major part of their children's success.
The problem is much more deep-rooted than addiction. There is a large class of people who have not benefitted from the democracy in the ~60 odd years of independence. The way they think is, "I am not going to get anything out of this anyway, neither did my earlier generation. This way I will at least get a TV and some free booze"
Yes, that's my point. There are more severe problems in india than addiction to alcohol and tobacco ruining kid's life. Handing out free things during election to people who are below poverty line has nothing to do with addiction. I was born in a state where handing out rice was very effective.
How Alcohol and Tobacco Cause Poverty https://thewire.in/health/how-alcohol-and-tobacco-cause-pove...
Impact of alcohol use on poor families: a study from North India https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1465989031000109...
Well, the OP's citation is "Not really an Indian,..." So you don't require more credibility than that when someone is commenting on an Indian story!
This gross generalisation is nothing new about India. People who do that(even if they are from a "neighboring country") do not understand the many contours of a vast and very diverse country! Indians have now become used to this partial vision of others about the country. The rest of the citation you included itself would have given you a hint: "similar kind of community in its neighboring country". Comparing a community to a whole country is quite a leap!